The birth of Christianity, nearly 2000
years ago, shaped the course of human history, yet until now historians have
been unable to explain how it all began. Now, the author of The Sign
puts all the pieces of the puzzle together and presents a radical and
convincing answer.
THE KEY TO ONE OF THE
GREATEST MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME LIES WITH THE SHROUD OF TURIN
Christianity began when, after Jesus’s
crucifixion, Jesus’s followers claimed to have seen him alive again. De
Wesselow shows that this episode can only be understood if what they actually
saw was something real but out of the ordinary, something so extraordinary that
they interpreted it as a sign of resurrection. What they saw was the Shroud.
BASED ON SEVEN YEARS
OF METICULOUS RESEARCH, THE SIGN PROVES THAT THE SHROUD OF TURIN
Long assumed to be a Medieval fake, the
author provides conclusive evidence that The Shroud of Turin, the reputed
burial cloth of Jesus, is in fact authentic. Using his experience as an art
historian, the author proves that the image on the Shroud cannot possibly be a
Medieval fake: the image does not match the style, technique or concepts of
medieval imagery; it cannot be a painting or a rubbing; and, most crucially, it
is a negative image, a fact only realised when it was first photographed in
1898.
THE AUTHOR’S
REVOLUTIONARY FINDINGS HAVE BEEN KEPT SECRET UNTIL TODAY
The subject matter of this new book is so
sensitive and so controversial that its contents have been kept a tight secret
for seven years.
USING ALL HIS SKILLS
AS AN ART HISTORIAN, THOMAS DE WESSELOW UNLOCKS THE SECRET OF THE RESURRECTION
Thomas de Wesselow explains that 2000
years ago people instinctively saw images as quasi-living beings – an instinct
known as ‘animism’ – so the Shroud would have been seen by Mary Magdalene and
the disciples as a living double of Jesus appearing after his death. In other
words, it would have been seen as the resurrected Jesus, as a ‘sign’ revealing
Jesus to have been raised from the dead and exalted to heaven.
THE SIGN EXPOSES THE
FLAWS IN THE 1988 CARBON-DATING TEST WHICH CLAIMED THE SHROUD WAS FROM THE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
This new book reveals how the botched
sampling of the cloth and the last-minute abandonment of agreed procedures mean
that the carbon-dating test was seriously flawed. De Wesselow shows that the
carbon-dating of ancient cloths is particularly error-prone and explains how
contamination or a medieval repair can account for the erroneous Shroud test.
AUTHOR DETAILS
SCIENTIFIC TESTS THAT HELP PROVE THAT THE SHROUD IS GENUINE
Like a detective, Thomas de Wesselow has
drawn together a range of scientific evidence that helps prove that The Shroud
must be authentic: pollens lifted from cloth fibres indicate that it was once
in Israel; a seam used in the weave of the linen is identical to one found only
on a first-century cloth from Judea; the wound-marks are composed of real
blood; and an alternative, peer-reviewed test of the age of the linen found
that it was over 1300 years old.
THE SHROUD IMAGE IS
EXPLAINED AS A NATURAL CHEMICAL STAIN
The author shows how the Shroud’s famous
image of a crucified man could have been formed ‘naturally’ when chemicals from
Jesus’s decomposing body reacted with starch deposits on the linen fabric to
produce a unique stain.
THE MYSTERY OF THE
EARLY SIGHTINGS OF THE RISEN JESUS CAN NOW BE EXPLAINED
The author shows how, viewed as an
animistic image, the Shroud can explain all the early reports of the ‘appearances’
of the Risen Christ. The negative quality of the image also explains why, in
the Gospels, the disciples are at first unable to recognise the Risen Jesus.
THE SHROUD MATCHES
THE EARLIEST TESTIMONY TO THE RESURRECTION
St Paulsays that the Risen Jesus appeared
in a ‘spiritual body’ to many people, including a crowd of more than 500.
Smuggled out of Jerusalem , The Shroud
effectively went ‘on tour’ for many months before being whisked away to safety
– and obscurity – in the Mesopotamia city of Edessa
BOOK FINALLY EXPLAINS
WHY CHRISTIANITY TOOK OFF SO QUICKLY AND SO DECISIVELY AFTER JESUS’S DEATH
The
new faith was kick-started by a real, observable phenomenon, seen by hundreds
of consistent, credible eye-witnesses and interpreted as a sign of
resurrection. The author shows how the Shroud itself holds the key to the
mystery, and how it inspired the birth of Christianity.
The Sign | 26 March 2012
RRP
$37.00 | Penguin Books
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